The Cassini spacecraft wasn't able to image the 13 January 2005 transit of Earth visible from Saturn but one of its successors may well be able to capture a view of one of the most spectacular transits of all, that of Jupiter.

I ran some calculations in 2004 and found that on the 19 May 2080 as seen from Titan (and its vicinity) Jupiter will transit the Sun. The underbelly of the giant planet will graze over the Sunís northern tip creating an impressive 40.47 arc second dent in our star and blocking around four percent of its light.

Jupiterís north may escape the Sun but it will be ringed by fire as sunlight is bent through its Hydrogen atmosphere towards Titan, giving valuable clues to its exact chemical composition.

This event is incredibly rare, having last occurred in 86 AD and after the 2080 event there will no repeat until the year 7541.

I used JPL's Solar System simulator to get an image of the event, but as it now only simulates up to 2025, I cannot reproduce the simulation.

Can anyone confirm that this event will occur from Titan on 19 May 2080?

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It's a funny old world - A man's lucky if he gets out of it alive. - W.C. Fields.

This rare Jupiter transit was written off as a near miss, and it is from the rest of Saturn's moons, but iit'll be quite a sight from Titan. Hmm...I'll be 103, so odds are these simulated pics will have to suffice!

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It's a funny old world - A man's lucky if he gets out of it alive. - W.C. Fields.

The image I got off JPL's Solar System Simulator shows mid transit at around 17.00 GMT on 19 May 2080. Any more info would be great as I've been meaning to get around to investigating this event further since Dec 2004 when I discovered it would occur.

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It's a funny old world - A man's lucky if he gets out of it alive. - W.C. Fields.

The image I got off JPL's Solar System Simulator shows mid transit at around 17.00 GMT on 19 May 2080. Any more info would be great as I've been meaning to get around to investigating this event further since Dec 2004 when I discovered it would occur.

I'm using Starry Night Pro 6, and I get the same answers as James.

Furthermore, can anyone verify the following?

Just as Jupiter is ending its transit, Ganymede appears (2080/05/21 3:43 UT) and it too begins a transit. That transit concludes at 22:20 UT on the 22nd. Meanwhile, Europa begins a transit at 17:12 UT, passes less than 3" from Ganymede (18:33 UT on 2080/05/21) while both are still on the Sun's disk (!), and leaves at 01:24 UT on the 22nd. I hope I'm not pushing the accuracy of this software past its reasonable limits...

Nice find . . . I'll have to figure out why Celestia is off by a day though. I'll see if it shows up on the right day when I switch from VSOP87 to the JPL DE406 ephemeris for the planets.

--Chris

Welcome to UMSF Chris, and can I take a moment to thank you for Celestia - totally awesome.

QUOTE (jsheff @ Dec 19 2006, 05:24 PM)

Just as Jupiter is ending its transit, Ganymede appears (2080/05/21 3:43 UT) and it too begins a transit. That transit concludes at 22:20 UT on the 22nd. Meanwhile, Europa begins a transit at 17:12 UT, passes less than 3" from Ganymede (18:33 UT on 2080/05/21) while both are still on the Sun's disk (!), and leaves at 01:24 UT on the 22nd. I hope I'm not pushing the accuracy of this software past its reasonable limits...

Ooh, nice find! Yup, Celestia gives the same (more or less I don't think the times quite match) here is a screenie.

And did you notice that Ganymede transits one way, just about crosses the suns limb to end the transit and then recrosses it and transits back the other way!!!

BTW Chris, when I do this all the moons of Jupiter disappear while Jupiter is within approx one Jupiter diameter of the sun so I miss a lot of the action. (Although I am using an old version (1.3.2) atm so maybe that bug has already been fixed.)

Here's another transit to look out for and not as long to wait either!

On 16 June 2061 Saturn will transit the Sun as seen from Neptune. The 3.1 billion km distant saturn appears with its rings slightly open giving the impression of an 8 arc second wide eye inlaid onto the Sun.

Have a look with Celestia.

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It's a funny old world - A man's lucky if he gets out of it alive. - W.C. Fields.

Welcome to UMSF Chris, and can I take a moment to thank you for Celestia - totally awesome. Ooh, nice find! Yup, Celestia gives the same (more or less I don't think the times quite match) here is a screenie.

Thanks. I've been lurking around here for quite a while now--aside from the Celestia forums, this is probably my favorite board to visit.

QUOTE

BTW Chris, when I do this all the moons of Jupiter disappear while Jupiter is within approx one Jupiter diameter of the sun so I miss a lot of the action. (Although I am using an old version (1.3.2) atm so maybe that bug has already been fixed.)

Yes, that's a very old version. I'm working on 1.5.0 now, and that bug should be fixed. There are a *lot* of new features in 1.5.0 that will be of interest to UMSF members, including SPICE support. If there's an appropriate forum on UMSF, I'll post an update there soon . . . I'm still waiting for my electricity to be turned on again; it's been down since last Thursday due to the wind storm we had in Seattle.

Quite a different date for me though 29 May 2061 13:00 UTC mid transit.

I think Titan transits almost right across the center of the sun just afterwards as well (but I can't see it as I'm still on the old version, waiting for the power in Seattle. Just have to track Titan and imagine it at the centre of the screen )

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